Posts tagged Jack Lemmon

It’s April 15, and your taxes are due. Ouch! What a grim way to begin today’s blog.

Today is also a chance for us to recommend a fun film about income taxes. (Hey, this is Joe’s Idea. Frank dislikes taxes immensely and prefers to forget the occasion.)

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers here, having filed months ago (we think; we hope), just leafing through a list of films about income taxes and one catches our eye. It’s the 1954 comedy Phffft, starring Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon.

If you’ve never seen it you’re in for a treat. Lemmon and Holliday had already scored with It Could Happento You earlier in the year, so Columbia re-teamed them in this bit of fluff by playwright George Axelrod of Seven Year Itch fame. (That’s the movie that produced the famous still of Marilyn with the billowing skirt standing on a New York subway grate. One of the most durable stills in movie history.)

In Phffft, Lemmon’s an accountant who does Judy’s taxes, before their marriage and after their divorce.

Columbia used the film to debut their new star, Kim Novak.

She has a small but pivotal role as a Marilyn Monroe-like sexpot who Lemmon dates after his break-up. Jack Carson also co-stars.

The word “Phffft” is credited to columnist Walter Winchell, who used it to describe when a married couple were split, over, finished. Supposedly Axelrod sold the idea to Columbia who was wooing him for the rights to Itch. That play was still on Broadway and eventually The Seven Year Itch was produced by Fox as a vehicle for Monroe.

Our intentions here are noble. Watching Phffft might make you forget some of the anguish you might be experiencing today.

A few days ago we suggested films you might want to watch on New Year’s Eve. Joe’s favorite is Repeat Performance, a film noir with a twist ending. And for romantics we noted When Harry Met Sally might be a good choice.

We’ve decided to add two more of Joe’s favorites to the list of films which have at least a key scene about New Year’s Eve. Who can forget Shirley MacLaine bolting a NYE party and running through the streets of New York to the bewildered Jack Lemmon?

If you haven’t seen it this year rent The Apartment. It’s one of Billy Wilder’s best films and has great performances by ALL the actors who inhabit it.

Another film which, though not about New Year’s Eve, has a key scene that takes place that night is Show Boat. Whichever version you choose, the 1936 black and white, or the 1951 color, you won’t be disappointed.

Irene Dunne and Allan Jones star in the earlier one. And you’ll see torch singer Helen Morgan recreate the role of Julie, which she’d done on Broadway. The later version stars Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner as Julie. Although Gardner’s voice was dubbed it was one of her best performances ever.

Many thought at the time that Lena Horne, who was under contract to MGM should have been given the role as the singer who is an octaroon, passing for white. But the studio felt that audiences knew Horne was black and couldn’t overcome the prejudices of the day.